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Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

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Re: Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

#221

Post by MonaroVXR »

vlunkr wrote: post #217
gorjusborg wrote: post #17

This type of 'update' is one reason I tend to stay away from so-called 'smart' devices. If part of the product I've paid for is software, and the company can update it without customer consent at any time, then I can't rely on the product's features. Period. I experienced this myself on the PS4 version of Terraria. I bought a hard-copy of the game. I mastered the controls, and loved them. Terraria was updated one day…

It's a tangent, but it's incredible to me that people used to ship video games and other software on physical media and it worked fine. Now you can drop a big turd on the steam store initially and it's just business as usual. Cynicism aside, I really do admire the dev and QA teams that pulled this off. It's such a different world now.

I've read somewhere that it wasn't always the case that something worked flawlessly on physical media.

Things are way different now.

Re: Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

#222

Post by 8n4vidtmkvmk »

zem wrote: post #214
vorpalhex wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm assuming you are talking about a sous vide device. This is one of the few (unrooted) smart devices I actually appreciate. You can easily configure it for a specific task (steak? chicken? brussels?), get push notifications when it's done and even turn off it's warm setting remotely if needed. And given that most of the thing is immersed in boiling hot water, it makes sense to not put controls on the device itself.

i'm glad my anova has both manual and bluetooth controls, because after the first couple of uses i simply default to manual for everything. personally i tihnk modern cellphones are remarkably clunky devices for anything other than reading books and gps. they aren't even very ergonomic as phones, they're annoying for web browsing compared to laptops, and they are definitely not satisfying to use as controls for physic…

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks this

Re: Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

#223

Post by MonaroVXR »

gorjusborg wrote: post #17

This type of 'update' is one reason I tend to stay away from so-called 'smart' devices. If part of the product I've paid for is software, and the company can update it without customer consent at any time, then I can't rely on the product's features. Period. I experienced this myself on the PS4 version of Terraria. I bought a hard-copy of the game. I mastered the controls, and loved them. Terraria was updated one day…

> if part of the product I've paid for is software, and the company can update it without customer consent at any time, then I can't rely on the product's features. Period.

What about your other devices?

Re: Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

#224

Post by eulers_secret »

mastazi wrote: post #74
gorjusborg wrote: post #17

This type of 'update' is one reason I tend to stay away from so-called 'smart' devices. If part of the product I've paid for is software, and the company can update it without customer consent at any time, then I can't rely on the product's features. Period. I experienced this myself on the PS4 version of Terraria. I bought a hard-copy of the game. I mastered the controls, and loved them. Terraria was updated one day…

> I tend to stay away from so-called 'smart' devices I tried several alternatives in terms of smart TV (Apple TV, Google/Android TV, Fire TV), and I could not find any platform that let me use all of the apps that I needed without resorting to casting from my phone. And in some cases there was a long process to follow in order to get the device to do what I needed[1], which involved activating developer mode, sideloa…

I tried to do the same thing, but the 4K+HDR streaming story is fully broken/DRM'd to hell on PC. You simply cannot stream 4K+HDR in most (all?) services on a modern PC (my HTPC is also a gaming PC... so Nvidia graphics in my case).

I went with Apple TV + Plex (along with D+/NFLX/Peacock/HBO Max/Hulu/AppleTV/Prime/Cable... but I still can't find everything I want)

Re: Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

#225

Post by 8n4vidtmkvmk »

mikestew wrote: post #145
TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why fuck with wall-mounting a TV or a bouncy tablet when they sell a treadmill with the screen built-in? Because unless the screen displays what you want it to, it's useless?

Oh, I see, you want to shame people for not seeing this coming. Never mind, I thought yours was an honest question.

even if not for the content/software lock.. modularity is almost always better. screen technology is constantly improving. maybe i want to upgrade later without throwing the whole treadmill out?

Re: Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

#226

Post by HappyJoy »

charles_f wrote: post #182
jabroni_salad wrote: post #26

Jeeze, I will stick with my modular solution: an ipad on a music stand. This is compatible not only with any commodity treadmill, but also bike trainers, ellipticals, and making vroomvroom noises on the motorcycle when it's too icy to actually ride. I could also swap out the ipad for a laptop, non-ipad tablet, or a collection of cute succulents should I desire it. snark aside, I'm a bicycle guy and I really like that…

> I will stick with my modular solution: an ipad on a music stand. I actually don't get the point of getting a 4000 treadmill rather than one that's half the price and an ipad

For me, it was the deck on the Peloton. At the time of purchase, it was the cheapest slat deck treadmill I could find.

Re: Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

#227

Post by gorjusborg »

hfsh wrote: post #204
gorjusborg wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not trying to pick on Terraria, but I think it's a great example for the reasons you are bringing up. Even with the 'value add' of the update, I no longer play the game. Why? Because I invested in learning and mastering the game as it was when I bought it. The forced update removed all value for me , and I'm the one who made the decision to buy it. If the product is changed significantly after purchase without my…

> without my consent Not having read the TOS of the platform (or even ever having used it), I'll hazard a guess this isn't quite legally true.

Not sure if you are intending to, but that only further illustrates how broken (in the favor of corporations) the current legal environment is.

You are right in that there probably is a gotcha, you agreed clause in the text that is displayed after I have purchased the item. I also think the idea that is legally binding a farce.

Imagine how popular buying things would be if people actually had to read those agreements.

Re: Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

#229

Post by andrewla »

gorjusborg wrote: post #17

This type of 'update' is one reason I tend to stay away from so-called 'smart' devices. If part of the product I've paid for is software, and the company can update it without customer consent at any time, then I can't rely on the product's features. Period. I experienced this myself on the PS4 version of Terraria. I bought a hard-copy of the game. I mastered the controls, and loved them. Terraria was updated one day…

I don't necessarily see where "customer consent" really enters the picture. Even if installing updates were optional, at some point you almost certainly want to install the updates, as it will contain bug fixes and enhancements in other areas of the product.

This is much more a question of relying on "off-label" feature / bugs in a product, which will always be an issue. The problem here is that the advertised experience was "you can only use our content" and that should have been enough to scare off potential buyers from considering it as an option.

Re: Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

#230

Post by Tildey »

jedberg wrote: post #219
Tildey wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You save… uhhh… one power outlet? But really, my understanding is that these fancier treadmills map incline/speed/whatever data to the video file to make it “more realistic”. I think there may even be a sort of MMO/live ghost feature? Personally I think I’d rather just have music I like and work out at a pace that’s comfortable for me, but to each their own I suppose.

> You save… uhhh… one power outlet? A power tap block is $3. :)

Yes, but a cheap treadmill + $3 vs a $4000 treadmill? Kind of a hard sell. Like I’m going to have to go pick up the power splitter myself? I don’t have time for that
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